(16 May 1998) Eng/French/Nat
The Group of Eight leaders opened their weekend summit on Saturday with the events in India and Indonesia high on their minds.
Summit host British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosted U-S President Bill Clinton and the other leaders of the world's richest nations at a retreat just outside Birmingham, central England.
The intended agenda of economic issues has broadened to discuss week's nuclear tests by India and the social unrest gripping Indonesia.
But it was not all business, as Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien took a break to address a pressing personal matter: a wager on an ice hockey match.
The backdrop was Weston Park, the sprawling mansion outside Birmingham owned by a descendant of Charles II.
But despite the pleasant surroundings, troubling world crises in Asia awaited the Group of Eight leaders on the first day of their weekend summit.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, playing host for the summit, was already inside, awaiting his fellow G-8 leaders.
The string of limousines and government cars started arriving with the summit's big names.
Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President Jacques Chirac were among the high-level arrivals.
U-S President Bill Clinton arrived in a stretch limousine, while Russian President Boris Yeltsin followed closely behind to round out the group's number.
The three-day meeting, which will take place mostly in Birmingham, was to address the financial crisis in Southeast Asia and global unemployment.
But the week's news events in India and Indonesia already made their way onto the agenda.
In an interview before his guests arrived, Blair said the peace referendum in Northern Ireland next week was another hot topic he hoped would be addressed by the leaders.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I hope very much today at the G8, we will have a discussion on Northern Ireland. Obviously there's a tremendous degree of interest there, and I hope that the other leaders will agree with the statement - not merely welcoming the peace process, but many of them are indicating that they would like to make it clear how much they believe the prospects for investment and prosperity for Northern Ireland would increase and improve dramatically if the peace process takes root."
SUPER CAPTION: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister
The leaders posed for a class photo opportunity in the flowering gardens of Weston Park before getting down to business.
The roundtable discussions bring the leaders together in a friendly setting, but differences in policy across the group remain, most notably over India.
On Friday night, the leaders issued a communique united in opposition against India's two rounds of underground nuclear tests this week.
All eight nations said their relations with India have been affected by the tests, which they said raised "grave concerns" over stability in South Asia.
But despite the group condemnation, there was no common agreement on condoning sanctions against India already imposed by the U-S, Canada and Japan.
Russia and France reportedly remain strongly opposed to issuing any sanctions of their own.
The leaders also issued a plea to neighbouring Pakistan to resist pressure to copy India with its own nuclear tests.
Few specifics have come out of their early meetings, but aides said international crime and speeding relief to the world's poorest countries were issues on the table.
But the summit's start was not all business, as there were some exchanges between leaders of another sort going on.
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